Posted by chicagomedia.org on May 08, 2009 at 12:39:10:
Reese Heading Search for Rehr Successor
By Kim McAvoy
TVNEWSDAY, May 7 2009, 10:16 AM ET
The joint board of the National Association of Broadcasters has appointed Bonneville International President Bruce Reese to head the search committee for a new NAB president, according to industry sources.
The committee became necessary after David Rehr announced yesterday in a 12:30 p.m. conference call with NAB board members that he was resigning after three years and five months in the $800,000-a-year job. Rehr had been under increasing pressure for failing to post wins for the industry in Washington.
Reese is on the NAB board's executive committee and is a past joint board chairman of the NAB. Bonneville operates 29 radio stations and a single TV station, KSL, the NBC affiliate in Salt Lake City.
The NAB declined to comment on Reese's appointment. TVNewsday has not yet been able to reach Reese for comment.
And there is no word yet on what other board members will sit on the committee.
According to some sources, the search for Rehr's successor has already begun. Disenchanted by his performance, the sources say, some TV board members met informally with at least two possible replacements for Rehr over the past several months.
It's believed broadcasters are now looking for a well-connected Democrat who could work well with an Obama-led FCC and knows the congressional Democrats who are now calling the shots on Capitol Hill.
Rehr was a prominent Republican lobbyist for the National Beer Wholesalers Association when he took the NAB job in 2005.